Tuesday, December 25, 2018

Bruce Wayne is called for a jury duty on a court case of Mr. Freeze and a major plot conspires to personally hurt Batman.

Bruce Wayne is selected for jury duty as he is one of the most prominent citizens of Gotham City in a case against Mr. Freeze where he is responsible for the death of three young women and he admits charges after Batman got involved. Although he claimed that the vigilante hero used excessive force on him but the media won't just listen to him.

Stumbled by his morality, Bruce questions the methods his alter ego takes as The Dark Knight and begs to differ when the rest of the jury decided to vote the King of Cold guilty. All of those three women appeared to die of natural causes but Batman discovered a mild temperature drop on their brain that was later confirmed by GCPD as well.

After finding a connection to his ice-cold nemesis, he confronted Victor Fries and constantly beat him to get a confession. In the mean time, his trusty sidekick and closest friend Dick Grayson puts on the cowl and check on him while fighting Killer Croc.

Freeze claims that was experimenting on those women to find a way o revive his wife and even though all evidence suggests that, Bruce asks his fellow jury not to side with The Bat just because many of them feels obliged to him for saving their life. Instead, he asks them to act as responsible citizen of Gotham and accept that the hero could be wrong too.

Batman – Cold Days | Comics

Grayson recollects how during his early days as Robin following the death of his parents, Bruce always tried to support him. Dick wonders how his partner can still be depressed after fighting villains like Condiment King and Crazy Quilt for years. They bonded over their interest on acrobatics and he still remembers how he used to hate cucumber sandwiches.

A stranger with a prosthetic arm by the name Mr. Zimmerman comes to Gotham on business. He checks in on a hotel and then goes to buy a gun before making a stop at a hot dog place where he left a napkin with a message that hints at the Joker/Riddler War. He then goes to an apartment block to set up a sniping position from a top room.

The Dynamic Duo was out fighting minions of a new villain called Phantom Pharaoh while Nightwing was making cheesy puns like always. They then meet Commissioner Gordon on the roof of GCPD Headquarters who informs them about the clue and a one-armed man. Dick makes another joke about it before getting shot in the head.

After making the shot, the man leaves Gotham and heads back to his meet his abusive alcoholic father in Russia. He sits with his old man for a drink while reminiscing events of his childhood filled with memories of his father's abuse. Batman has assumed the identity of the shooter being Anatoli Knyazev AKA KG Beast, the dreadful Soviet scourge.

His butler Alfred Pennyworth asks to apprehend the Russian assassin and the Caped Crusader then meets Bronze Tiger for a clue to find the Beast as he covered his tracks well. The leads took him to Apokoliptian assassin Kanto who reveals that Anatoli has a father that is still alive and Batman eventually finds way to Vasily Knyazev's cabin.

Vasily had an argument with his son about him still being weak and ho he is left with an amputated arm because of his boyish nature. A final showdown between the Detective and the Beast ensues outside the cabin and somehow, all of these fiascos are tied to the court case Bruce Wayne was involved in regarding Mr. Freeze.

Someone is playing the World's Greatest Detective from behind the scenes by involving Bruce Wayne into a case against Mr. Freeze and then sending Soviet assassin KG Beast after his ward. Following the live-action debut of the character, Anatoli Knyazev has received a better treatment on the Prime Earth reality rather than his New Earth counterpart.

Reference of "The War of Jokes and Riddles" was made and it suggests that either Riddler or some new player is almost directing Batman towards something. It is almost like the time when he was being played out by a mysterious enemy in "Batman – Hush".
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Martian Manhunter tries to protect the Justice League from an incoming threat that may shatter the world.

In space, a mysterious object passes through space and time, which members of the Justice Legion, multiversal race of Monitors, Kamandi and even the group of all powerful beings called the Quintessence notices and all they could do is to helplessly watch this threat heading towards Earth without being able to stop it before it reaches impact.

Back in Earth, the Justice League members are fighting different tribes of Neanderthals around the globe while telepathically reporting back to Martian Manhunter. They came up with the theory that someone pushed them toward evolution, which is making them trying to claim over Earth and it could be none other than their old enemy Vandal Savage.

As he hold together the minds of his allies, the Martian witness the surface of Earth suddenly breaking apart. J'onn J'onzz pieces together everything from their minds and suggests they would have to destroy the moon. He asks Batman to activate the bombs he planted there long ago and makes an impact taking shape of a giant dragon-like creature.

As the threat is reverted, Superman informs that Swamp Thing is rebinding Earth and J'onn gets a flashback of his life back on Mars where everyone was burnt to death, including his own daughter K'hym in front of him. He tells Bruce that the crisis is far from over and connects rest of the League members into a psychic boardroom meeting.

He sensed something bigger than Savage's plan and discovered the mysterious object, "The Totality" approaching here holding all the energy of the bleeding Source Wall and they are only minutes away from impact. Hawkgirl asks if the Omega Titans are involved but Bruce connects it to a myth of New Genesis from the scan Cyborg ran on it earlier.

Justice League – The Totality | Comics

As everyone is arguing over their current course of action over the matter, Batman suggests a possible contingency in form of Green Lantern John Stewart, who he stationed and awaiting order to fire a miniaturized omniversal wormhole bullet made of Tenth Metal, ready to transport the Totality out of Source Wall and destroy it.

From their secret hideout, the Neanderthal followers of Vandal Savage question his agenda but he claims everything is going according to plan. Lex Luthor arrives out of shadows claiming his plan will fail and as Savage tries to attack him, the former stuns him. His followers pledges alliance to Lex to join his Injustice Gang but he kills them anyway.

He then moves to Savage, mocking him for being coward to never facing the truth and presents his own Legion of Doom consisting of Black Manta, Cheetah, Gorilla Grodd, The Joker and Sinestro. Luthor shows him a doorknob-like object of power and repeatedly smashed him to a bloody pulp, which sent J'onn a psychic flash of upcoming events.

The team was having a disagreement over what to do next, Wonder Woman asks J'onn to call his vote as the chairman of the League and before he could do so, he was interrupted by the telepathic spark that he lost connection to everyone and The Totality hits Earth. He also sensed someone else who knew about the impending doom.

It landed in the Nevada Desert with all the power of Source Wall, shaped as a giant head and created a protective shell around it. Though the Justice League Dark has covered it in a mystic veil to avoid public detection, word about it is getting out and Suicide Squad member Killer Croc has already been possessed by it, whom the League is fighting.

Through Swamp Thing, The Dark Knight approaches John Stewart to join Justice League right away to help them tackling the threat of The Totality. Apparently, Croc has turned into a giant monster and giving a tough time to the heroes. They couldn't get a response from John and decides to investigate the mysterious energy immediately.

Stewart was transporting a prisoner to Green Lantern Corps in space when Sinestro showed up in a new emotional spectrum, transforming him into Ultraviolet Lantern. He then smashed into the Hall of Justice attacking Aquaman, Flash and Wonder Woman. He creates constructs powerful enough to beat them but Cyborg managed to knock him off.

Meanwhile, Superman and Manhunter enter the sphere with Batman and Hawkgirl within their bodies using tech from The Atom. What they don't know is that both Luthor and Joker also sneaked their way inside. Arthur, Barry and Diana find out the Hall of Doom underwater and are attacked by a group of primitive White Martians kept into stasis.

Apparently, Lex Luthor gotten his hands on an object called Doom and with it, he promises each of the villains in his Legion what they wants and they joined his cause gladly. Now that he has gained control over the body of the Man of Steel, only the Caped Crusader is left to stand on his way to stop him but even he may not be equipped enough to do that.

DC Comics has been reconstructing the Multiverse following the events of "DC Rebirth". So, "Dark Nights – Metal" and "Justice League – No Justice" played their subtle part in that plan and "The Totality" is like one grand design connecting many other pieces together, which collects the first seven issues from the Justice League fourth ongoing series.

Into The Totality

Though Snyder has previously introduced many ground-breaking storylines while working on Batman ongoing of The New 52, he cranked up his game level and delivered a complex plot that lay a groundwork for many upcoming occurring in DC Universe. He even teased to bring a prominent character from Dark Multiverse at the end of the book.

Even though the story revolves around the key-members of the team, reserve members of the League like Adam Strange, Animal Man, Green Arrow, Hawkman, Mister Terrific, Plastic Man, Swamp Thing and Vixen also showed up to lend a hand. Hal Jordan was mentioned and the rest of the members of Green Lantern Corps appeared to assist during the crisis.
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Tuesday, November 6, 2018

Artemis and Red Hood go out for a date night in Gotham while Bizarro takes the night off to have a drink.

For a while now, Artemis and Red Hood has been teammates and fellow Outlaws even though they got a rocky start. Tonight, they are going on a date to honor a bet Jason Todd lost to her and is baffled by her flattering looks. She asks Bizarro if they can use the Quantum Door for the night and he wishes them farewell for the night.

Lex Luthor was monitoring their recent activities that include an encounter with the Bat-Family and a mission alongside Suicide Squad from the solitude of his penthouse office at LexCorp, thinking over the progress his creation has made so far.

In Gotham, Artemis Grace enjoys a drink with Jason before she suggests that they go somewhere more private and are soon in the Batcave. Even though knowing Bizarro cannot eavesdrop on them, she non-verbally communicates with him about her concerns over the growing power of their friend with a hyper-intelligence.

Since his friends were out for the night, the big guy goes to a bar near the docks after taking a bath in liquid Kryptonite, where he meets a person named Solitary. When he opens his eyes later, he finds both Jason and Red came looking for him.

Red Hood and the Outlaws – Good Night Gotham | Comics

Later, Red Hood breaks into the Gotham Empire hotel to scare businessman Jakoby Frum out of town to stop a munitions dealing with Penguin. He then joins his teammates for breakfast and then they part away. Red keeps an eye on Biz to found out that he assembled a group of goons by tricking them into believing they are here for a job.

He attempts to poison the entire room but refrains from doing so in the last minute thinking he didn't gave them much choice. In the meantime, Lady Artemis discovers the hidden bath chamber with tanks full of liquid Kryptonite moments before Bizarro arrives. He fails to explain why he kept it a secret and admits he needs help.

She talks him out of his addiction toward the fluid and he drains all the supply he had but he was also regressing slowly. So, Artemis Grace takes it on herself to go and meet his maker about giving him an extended life. Given that he already saved him twice, Lex simply declines to help despite their shared distant past history.

Meanwhile, Jason was on Iceberg Lounge under disguise for some Gotham hold 'em and to annoy Oswald Cobblepot as well. Turns out, he saw through the coy and cornered Red Hood for stealing his money with the Outlaws in a previous run in. Yet, he still manages to escape by sabotaging the power grid at the last minute.

Jason confides in Alfred Pennyworth about his recent endeavors while wondering whether what he is doing is right. Then the granddaughter of Ma Gunn shows up to hand him an envelope containing letters from his deceased father. One of them reveals that Penguin was the one who got him arrested by setting him up.

The backward Superman's mental condition worsens and their secret headquarters floating over Gotham City initiates a self-destruction protocol that Artemis couldn't seem to break into anyhow. Red Hood's vendetta against Penguin for messing up his life will lead him to a path to face an angry and betrayed Batman.

Collecting issues #19-25 from the second monthly ongoing volume of Red Hood and the Outlaws published by DC Comics, the story spawned a bunch of new ties that Jason Todd has to find the knot to, because of their direct connection to him.

Outlaw Versus Knight

A lot of his past is revealed where it is shown that his father Willis Todd has worked for villains like Mr. Freeze, The Riddler and Two-Face, before Penguin. A relation to Faye Gunn came out as a shocking surprise that no one expected. Although whether or not Artemis and Bizarro will return is uncertain due to a cliffhanger ending.

Arsenal makes a surprise cameo appearance at the end of the story while Starfire and The Creeper showed up fighting a team of Bane, Cyborg Superman, Gorilla Grodd, Joker, Sinestro and Solomon Grundy in a dream sequence of Bizarro. The best part before the end of the story comes when Red Hood goes up against The Dark Knight.
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The maniacal Clown Prince of Crime is finally cured of his insanity and tries to right his wrongs by saving Gotham City from Batman!

On the gates of Arkham Asylum, a Batmobile stops by and a person comes out of it to meet a patient, Batman. The guards escort him inside and as they update the man named Jack Napier about The Dark Knight, he simply asks the imprisoned vigilante to help him.

Flashback to a year prior, The Joker was on the run as Batman was chasing him in his Batmobile throughout the city with Batgirl at his side. During the pursuit, the clown makes him endanger public life by making him recklessly go through construction sites and rooftops. Nightwing saves a worker on the go and even one security guard was knocked off by the Bat when he was fanatically chasing the clown.

Following a brief taunting, these two arch-enemies start a fight in an empty building of the industrial district where the clown argues about the duality of their relationship and how his sanity is kept in check by fighting crime. At one point he pushes Batman too far pointing out the tragedy of his life and the young sidekicks only to be beaten more viciously.

The Joker takes out some pills he believes will cure him and the Caped Crusader shoved the whole package down his throat in front of GCPD, Jim Gordon, Det. Harvey Bullock and Renee Montoya, effectively leaving him chocked while a woman filmed the scene.

The city breaks out in two fractions; some arguing over condemning Batman after the Hail Mary chase he put throughout Gotham and some still believing in him after the video of their fight was leaked and gone viral. Even Gordon and Bullock argues on whether they are on the right side before Batgirl arrives to check on the condition of the clown.

Bruce is confronted by Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon in Wayne Manor about his recent display of near-psychotic fits of rage, because his behavior doesn't seem alright. He then opens a secret door to passage downstairs where they see a dying Alfred Pennyworth lying on a bed and Bruce has enlisted the help of Victor Fries AKA Mister Freeze.

While he is deeply upset about his father-figure lying in a dying state, he goes back to check on Joker and then leaves abruptly. Jim Gordon meets the mayor in City Hall and Doctor Leslie Thompkins gives her report on the patient, Jack Napier has recovered and fully sane now. Although Gordon suspects that he is faking it, Leslie confirms him it to be otherwise.

Batman – White Knight | Comics

With his newfound sanity, he is also working full-time on his legal case to file charges against Batman and GCPD. In a meeting with the cops, he gets out of his handcuffs and calmly explains how he can pin charges against them if he wants by going to trial, which he will win and claims that he is going to save Gotham from Batman as its White Knight.

In his trial, Jack Napier opens up about his recovery and how he was always a criminal who started with a bank robbery but was accused of committing murder or at least, the police never could show any evidence and been labeled as a super-criminal anyway.

He accuses the gatekeepers of Gotham to use his unstable mental condition as an excuse to scare the taxpaying Gothamites and used him as a source of revenue. With that, he walks free from trial due to lack of evidence and vows to eradicate vigilantism from the city.

He then goes back to Harley Quinn and although joyous to see him, she is almost immediately disgusted to see him not a psycho in makeup anymore. Napier apologizes to her for his years of abuse and negligence before proposing to marry her to make things right. She gut-punched him to the floor, only get kicked off by Harleen Quinzel.

It seems Harley left long ago and now came back to take him back with Bud and Lou. They catch up on their old days that are full of excitement but she was always blindsided by his obsession with The Dark Knight. Things went too far when Harley found him torturing Robin down in their basement and contacted Batman to get help without delay.

He beats down the maniac with an inch of his life before sending him to Arkham but they never found Jason Todd, ever. Even Napier couldn't remember what he really did to the Boy Wonder as The Joker. He wants to move on asks her help to rebuild Gotham together.

He calls for a meeting of his former colleagues including Baby Doll, Bane, Killer Croc, Penguin, Poison Ivy, Roxy Rocket, Scarecrow, Scarface/Ventriloquist, The Riddler and Two Face only to trick them into becoming his mind-controlled puppets with hat of Mad Hatter, by using Clayface as a signal conduit for a grand scheme to frame the Caped Crusader.

As planned, he unleashed an army of super-villains on the streets and police gave them chase before the Bat-Family arrived on scene. Wrecking havoc throughout the city, they are lured to the planned site of a library for Backport and it collapsed onto Batman. He came out badly injured and his life was saved at a great cost of a loved one.

Refusing to let go of the chance for Jack Napier to embrace The Joker persona once again, the Harley pretender suits up in an all-new avatar to get her lover back and finds out about the scheme Jack is playing and with help from Hatter, she managed to turn the tables.

Apparently, the pretender was a depressed banker named Marian Drews, who met The Joker during a bank robbery and became a part of his life. Now that he is gone, she intends to get him back and debuts as Neo Joker. She unleashes a crisis on Gotham that even Jack Napier sees no other way to save the city without the help of his archenemy.

For more information on this limited series, you can check out the link below.

The long-running debate regarding the vigilante methods of Batman has crossed a few lines and it helped The Joker/Jack Napier to portray as a villain. Harleen Quinzel also played an important role to the overall plot and a huge ensemble of villains from Gotham showed up for a major clash with the Bat-Family and members of GCPD.

Unexpected Peace Offering

A fine nod to the poorly received Batman and Robin movie from 1997 and "The Dark Knight Returns" graphic novel are probably there regarding the fate of the trusted Wayne family butler Alfred Pennyworth. Pivotal elements from another popular storyline, "A Death in the Family" subtly played an influence for the ongoing Batman/Joker antagonism over the undisclosed fate of Jason Todd and unveiled new twist.

It appears that, Murphy took great inspiration from the popular TV show of 90's, Batman: The Animated Series and some classic characters like Baby Doll, Roxy Rocket and Veronica Vreeland appeared in the story, reimagined with almost same appearance resembling to the series. The sleek and edgy drawing style of Murphy was an overall refresher and was very well suited match to the dark tone of the story.
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Robin’s past finally revealed to Superboy in a meeting with Talia al Ghul, before Kid Amazo returns to tear the Super Sons apart.

When his dad Superman leaves for a Justice League-level emergency and reporter mom Lois Lane goes Metropolis to investigate on an article for Daily Planet, young superhero Jon Kent is left behind with Damian Wayne, who lands on the school ground of West-Reeve by their trusted family butler Alfred Pennyworth.

Unbeknownst to Damian, his mother Talia al Ghul was secretly keeping an eye on him from nearby and meets him during lunch period only to freak out his friend Superboy by holding her own son with a sword on his throat. She asks him to come with her but Robin declines her offer after freeing himself.

The Super Sons heads to Gotham City and encounters members from League of Assassins before finding out that Talia was hired to kill Lois. Jon and Damian then start scouring through the city to find their mothers to stop one from killing the other.

The shot fired by Talia from a rooftop was timely deflected by Jon while Robin confronts his mother about this contract she took and engages her. Jon would come across Lois on street after taking down a few of the ninjas and Damian would force his mother to leave town after besting her in combat.

Super Sons – Parent Trap | Comics

Two researchers working at LexCorp walks into a room for checking on inventory before Lex Luthor arrives only to discover that the synthetic suit made of Amazo Virus is missing from containment and as the Super Sons were planning for their patrolling schedule for the night on Fortress of Attitude, Kid Amazo suddenly breaks in.

Sending Robin to look for rebreathers, Superboy tackles their former enemy until the villain is hit by an escape pod of theirs. Together, they made an attempt to reach out to surface for seeking help but Jon is grabbed by the leg at the last minute and pulled underwater.

Before Damian could ran out of air, Cyborg came out of nowhere at his rescue and band together looking for Kid Amazo instead of taking him back home. An unconscious Jon is dragged by the suit to an oil rig and discloses how it escaped using Reggie Meyer.

Since the boy was in a weakened condition when bonded, there are high chances of him being dead right now, because his powers were burned out and now it needs an external energy source to feed on. To absorb organic power from new source, he has acquired Batman, Flash, Superman and Wonder Woman.

After draining the entire League, the suit wanted Jon as a host who could survive and filter it to power the armor. Though resistant, he couldn't free his father and friends or even last too long before help could arrive but when it did, he immediately freed himself from captivity.

Since the suit has tapped into the power of Flash, it started to give even Cyborg a hard time. With no chance to seemingly win against the villain, Robin eventually came up with a plan which involves Victor Stone losing to Kid Amazo as a part of gamble he planned.

The killer queen who used to run League of Assassins, Talia al Ghul pays a surprise visit to her son Damian with a contract to kill Lois Lane. However, the ongoing Leviathan civil war is what brought her here even though her intentions were never clarified at any point of the encounter (The Silencer – Code of Honor).

Then former Amazo Project came back to life next, looking for revenge by taking down the biggest players of world's greatest superhero team. Except for Aquaman and Green Lantern, almost every core-member of the Justice League showed up in the story, not to save the day but to be saved instead.
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